At an
Australian Liberal Party Conference in South Australia at
the weekend, the major theme of Prime Minister John
Howard’s address (refer ABC news item below) was housing
affordability. He focused on urging the State Governments of
Australia to urgently release more land, as strangling
supply is the major cause of housing inflation.

Mr Howards
speech follows the same comments made last week by the
Australian Federal Treasurer, Peter Costello, when he
launched a major report by the Institute of Public Affairs
(IPA) “The Tragedy of Planning: Losing The Great
Australian Dream” This report concluded that housing lots
on the periphery of Melbourne should not cost any more than
$60,000.

Last week the retiring Governor of the Reserve
Bank of Australia, Ian MacFarlane, said the slow release of
land across Australia was falsely driving up house prices.
He also urged State Governments to urgently address this
issue.

Recently the New Zealand Housing Minister Chris
Carter, stated (refer last para Page 10, North & South
August article) that he is to get an investigation underway
on why the Resource Management and Local Government Acts are
arresting the supply of land for housing and what needs to
be done to address the issue.

This investigation follows
the release of a Motu Research report commissioned by the
Centre for Housing Research of New Zealand (CHRANZ) earlier
this year, which found that lack of land supply was the
major cause of house price inflation in New Zealand.

The
Demographia International Housing Affordability Survey
released in January, of the 100 major urban areas of the UK,
Ireland, Canada, USA, Australia and NZ found that most urban
markets in Australia and New Zealand are now severely
unaffordable. They were affordable 20 and 30 years ago.

The Survey found that urban areas with Smart Growth policies
are unaffordable.

Twenty four of the North American
markets are currently affordable, where house prices are no
more than three times household incomes. In contrast,
Australian and New Zealand cities range between five and
nine times incomes

The Demographia Surveys co author Hugh
Pavletich said “Young people in Australia and New Zealand
should not be required to pay any more than three times
their annual household income to house themselves, as their
parents and grandparents had the opportunity to do.
Currently young people are being locked out or forced to buy
inferior quality housing”.

Mr Pavletich said “With
the political progress being made in Australia in dealing
with this serious issue, New Zealand must ensure that it
gets land released as quickly as possible, or face the grim
reality of losing more young people to Australia. There is
no need for this to happen. The choice is ours”.

ENDS (370 words approx)

For further information
–(1) Google News “John Howard housing”; “Peter
Costello housing”; “Ian MacFarlane housing”.(2) NZ
North & South magazine August cover story “Locked Out –
Will our kids ever be able to buy a house?”.(3)
Institute of Public Affairs (IPA) www.ipa.org.au Melbourne,
Australia latest housing report “The Tragedy of Planning:
Losing the Great Australian Dream”(4) NZ Centre for
Housing Research (CHRANZ publications
www.hnzc.co.nz/chr/index.html . Note further major report to
be released Thursday 24 August 2006.

Scoop Citizen Members and ScoopPro Organisations are the lifeblood of Scoop.

20 years of independent publishing is a milestone, but your support is essential to keep Scoop thriving. We are building on our offering with new In-depth Engaged Journalism platform - thedig.nz.
Find out more and join us:

“It is our intention that the clarity that will come from the outcome of these proceedings will enable the Crown to work with Southern Response to provide a soundly based proactive solution to those people that are affected.” More>>

Classifying on-demand video content will be made mandatory to bring it in line with other media and provide better guidance and protections to families and young people, says Internal Affairs Minister Tracey Martin. More>>

Inland Revenue and the Accident Compensation Corporation are calling ‘time’ on cheques. From March next year, IR and ACC will no longer accept payments by cheque from customers who are able to use alternative payment options. More>>

ALSO:

Broader participation by New Zealanders, greater access to growth capital for New Zealand enterprises, and more choices for investors drive the recommendations in the Capital Markets 2029 report released today. More>>

Wallabies could spread over a third of New Zealand within the next 50 years, unless control is increased dramatically, says Forest & Bird central North Island regional manager Rebecca Stirnemann. More>>